Dillon Simpson reportedly negotiating with Edmonton Oilers. What kind of a player is he?

The Edmonton Oilers’ weaknesses on defence are well-known. One area where the organization is not weak, however, is in blueline prospects. The system is chock-a-block with them, and may be set to formally add another.

In 2011, Stu MacGregor and crew placed a heavy emphasis on the blue, drafting Oscar Klefbom in the first round, David Musil in the second, Dillon Simpson in the fourth, and Martin Gernat in the fifth. All have been tracking reasonably well to this point, with Klefbom, Musil and Gernat all making their North American professional debuts in Oklahoma City this season. Simpson, meanwhile, has been quietly progressing at the University of North Dakota, a program he joined at 17, the year before he was drafted. At that time he was the youngest player in his league; this year as a senior, Simpson turned 21 in February, and was the youngest UND captain in over 20 years.

Now that his college eligibility has expired, Simpson is free to negotiate with the Oilers, who as I understand it hold exclusive rights to do so until August 15. Word is that such negotiations are proceeding apace, with the money quote from Dillon’s father Craig Simpson, himself a former Oiler and now a Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster.

“I know that they’re talking anyways and I think Scott Howson and Dillon and his agent are discussing. The big thing this week for Dillon because they’ve missed so much school, is to check with the academic advisors to make sure that he can get his degree with the couple of courses that he has left to finish. I know that he’s obviously excited and was when he got drafted, about being a member of the Edmonton Oilers and I’m sure that will come fairly quickly.”

Things have changed at UND during Simpson’s time there. The squad is no longer known as the Fighting Sioux, a term that was deemed offensive to Native Americans and formally dropped in 2012, and cannot officially adopt a new name until 2015 according to state law (!). Moreover, the squad changed conferences from the former WCHA to the new NCHC (National Collegiate Hockey Conference), where Simpson earned All-Conference honours along with fellow Oilers draft choice Joey Laleggia (6th round, 2012). Dillon’s UND squad finished a strong second and earning an at-large berth to the 16-team Division I tournament. They then proceeded to win their regional tournament with a pair of upset victories to qualify for the Frozen Four this past weekend in Philadelphia.

Simpson’s college career came to a heart-breaking end in the national semi-final, when they fell 2-1 to arch-rival Minnesota on what was literally a last-second goal, scored shorthanded no less, that lifted the Golden Gophers to a 2-1 win in a taut, tense affair. The game was scoreless for 50 minutes and tied for all but 32.6 seconds. I had the opportunity to watch this game on tape delay and focussed specifically on Dillon Simpson’s play throughout.

I didn’t run a stopwatch, but would estimate that the captain played about 25 minutes, almost all of it paired with sophomore Jordan Schmaltz, a first-round pick of St. Louis in 2012. The duo played in all key situations, including a heavy dose of own-zone starts and first penalty-kill duty.

If I had to choose one word to describe Simpson’s game, it would be “efficient”. Not an overwhelming skater by any means, the 6’2, 197-pound rearguard played an extremely sound positional game, moving the puck calmly and with apparent ease. He likely had a dozen or so possessions in each period, and I counted exactly one pass all game that was off the mark and in the skates of the intended receiver. Otherwise it was tape-to-tape as a matter of course, mostly simple passes of the D-to-D type or hitting a breaking forward in a good support position. It seemed like every time he touched the puck it would be moving north in short order. He rarely jumped into the play himself, content (at least in this tight game) to let the puck do the work. He managed one decent wrist shot that tested the opposing netminder, otherwise his contributions to the offensive game came through clever puck movement. This included a smart pass from the point off the end wall that led to a pair of dangerous shots, a couple of well-placed shoot-ins that were easily recovered by his teammates, a very nice scoop pass that cleared the zone and found a teammate at the far blueline, and the afore-mentioned multiplicity of crisp breakout passes, one of which directly led to UND’s tying goal midway in the third period. It would prove to be the 75th and last point of Dillon’s 156-game NCAA career.

Defensively Simpson also relied on positional play first and foremost. He was anything but a big bopper, but was very efficient at closing down shooting and passing lanes. He showed outstanding form in blocking three shots by my count (two officially), and apparently led the entire NCAA with some 109 blocked shots on the season. He also cut out a few cross-ice passes, including a pair of outstanding defensive plays on the same shift to thwart dangerous thrusts at the back door. On one or two occasions he seemd to be running around a little bit, sliding to deny a passing lane on an opposition powerplay but quickly regaining his feet as the puck stayed on the outside, or a couple of times being boxed out around his own crease. Still, there was remarkably little trouble in the UND end on Simpson’s watch, at least until the game-winner when a counter-attacking Minnesota group took advantage of a favourable bounce off of Schmaltz and picked the far corner before goalie or defenders could respond. It was a brutal and in some ways unfair ending to a game where the underdog UND squad had more than held their own, outshooting Minnesota 37-28.

Overall I found myself more impressed with Simpson’s game than with his physical skills. His innate understanding of where to find the “good ice”, to recognize and execute the simple play, and to read opposition threats all scored high. The defender prides himself on his ability to stay out of the penalty box, having taken just 48 penalty minutes in his four years at UND. Still, there’s a lack of physical bite to his game which is bound to alienate a portion of the fanbase should he make it as far as the NHL.

Still a ways to go from here to there, mind. First comes the matter of signing that entry-level contract, which one hopes will happen in due course as per Craig Simpson’s words above. From there it seems likely that he will start next season at the AHL level, a standard course that the Oilers have used with college defenders from Matt Greene (27 AHL games) and Tom Gilbert (48) to Jeff Petry (51) and Justin Schultz (34). All of those guys remain full-time NHLers today, but needed that half-year or so of professional seasoning.

The counter-example is Taylor Chorney, another college grad who never did successfully complete the jump despite being given similar, and ultimately repeated, opportunities. Goes to show that there are no guarantees, even for the young men who seem to be tracking well as they make the transition from college to professional ranks. Whether Dillon Simpson can pick his way through a strong crop of blueline candidates and into the NHL is an open question at this point, but he certainly appears ready to make the next step.

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